Wh-words

[William C. Spruiell]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
I learned the /hw-/ forms on words like "why" and "where" as a child in
west-central Alabama, but did not learn it on words like "whiskey," creating
a sort of split (although I did learn the /hw-/ form on "whale"). When
living for a while in the western (mountainous) part of North Carolina, I
noticed that the /hw-/ had been retained (or reinvented?) in "whiskey" as
well.

I'm left wondering if there are general patterns of interactions between the
/hw/ vs. /w/ neutralization and the status of individual lexemes as
"wh-words" vs. regular nouns, etc.

-- Bill Spruiell